The vast fantasy realm of Gael Serran is being torn asunder by an entity thought to be long contained. An evil ruler has escaped the clutches of a binding curse and is seeking revenge on the populace and means to destroy their once peaceful world. Only through the magical powers of the Mavin Sword can he be defeated.

This legendary weapon, forged with metallic properties of both good and evil, must be found and its strength brought to bear against the evil sweeping the land. You, with a party of up to six adventurers, are charged by the Oracles of Ishad N'Ha to explore the land and track down the sword.

The story, written by the creator of Wizardry titles V-VII, D. W. Bradley, chronicles the search for the Mavin Sword and features more than 100 quests. A rich history evolves as the story progresses and vast territories are discovered and explored while interacting with the demons, monsters, and unsavory entities unleashed upon the land.

In addition to the variety of quests, this first-person RPG contains ten races from which to choose your party members, 45 environments, six spell books with 16-20 spells in each, hundreds of inventory items, more than 350 characters, creatures, and monsters, and 100 NPCs to interact with.

Wizards & Warriors, developed by Heuristic Park, features real-time action with a turn-based style of combat that employs an Adaptive Time Phasing concept that allows you to stop the action and assign weapons and select spells for the next round of fighting. Weapons in the game consist of spells (offensive, defensive and environmental), melee and ranged mplements of war and an arsenal of equipment.

The ten races (or clans), Humans, Elves, Lizzords, Dwarves, Oomphaaz, Whiskahs, Gnomes, Pixies, Guorks and Ratlings, all have specific and unique attributes and traits assigned during the character creation phase. Attributes include strength, intellect, spirituality, dexterity, agility, fortitude, will and presence. You can create up to 15 characters in the game but adventure with only six at any given moment.

Selections offered during the character creation phase encompass clan, gender, portrait, and role with bonus attribute and skill points that can be added to the basic generated random ratings. Additionally, each clan type is awarded a bonus trait commensurate with its innate abilities. For example, humans receive the Natural Leader trait, gnomes rate Lucky Charm, Ratlings settle for the Golddigger trait while the cat-like Whiskahs have Night Vision.

Characters in Wizards & Warriors can fill only one of four possible roles at the beginning: warrior, wizard, priest, and rogue. By training at specific guilds during the game, elite roles can be gained. These character "ascensions" culminate in roles such as barbarian, bard, monk, ninja, paladin, ranger, samurai and warlock. Three super-elite roles are attainable through in-game special achievements: assassin, Valkyrie and Zenmaster.

The game's character structure also allows skills and attributes to be increased as experience is gained. More than 30 characteristics such as the ability to forge (repair), stealth, vinecraft, stonecraft, fiendcraft, scouting, picking pockets, music and more can be improved upon as the adventure continues.

Sixty traits ranging from ancestral guide to vampirism can be activated using a special ability function while others are inherent to the clan and are more passive in nature. Characters can "retire" their basic roles once they become strong enough to expand to elite roles through experience. A penalty is incurred in the short term — their previous level is frozen and experience levels are reset to zero — which can only be attributed to growing pains!

Numerous gameplay options are featured such as frequency of monster spawning, monster difficulty, display of on-screen movement arrows (reminiscent of the original Might and Magic method of moving characters), and use of special animated cursors for looking and moving. Other options include adjustable game speed, 3D acceleration, multiple detail and graphic settings, and a safeguard mode that allows four levels of NPC interaction.

The interface is point-and-click driven and is supported by keyboard shortcuts. A separate release, Wizards & Warriors Collector's Edition, includes several Ral Partha Publishing miniatures, a Brady Games Mini-Strategy Guide and a foldout map of the gaming world, Gael Serran. The gameplay is otherwise identical.

Are you up to the challenge of saving a world from destruction? Select your traveling companions wisely, mortal — the road ahead is long and dangerous as you enter the world of Wizards & Warriors. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Your gamerDNA learns what you love about games so it can tell you what you'll enjoy about others. When you "run" your gamerDNA at a game page (like this one) the data within your gamerDNA is calculated against all the data associated with the game, in this case Wizards & Warriors, and what comes out the other side are all the things your gamerDNA has in common with the game. Pretty cool!

Your gamerDNA learns what you love about games so it can tell you what you'll enjoy about others. When you "run" your gamerDNA at a game page (like this one) the data within your gamerDNA is calculated against all the data associated with the game, in this case Wizards & Warriors, and what comes out the other side are all the things your gamerDNA has in common with the game. Pretty cool!